Creating a clear map of where the project is going is an important first step. It lets you identify risks, clarify objectives, and determine if the project even makes sense. The only thing more important than the Release Plan is not to take it too seriously.
Release planning is creating a game plan for your Web project outlining what you think you want your Web site to be. The plan is a guide for the content, design elements, and functionality of a Web site to be released to the public, to partners , or internally. It also estimates how long the project will take and how much it will cost. What the plan is not is a functional specification that defines the project in detail or that produces a budget you can take to the bank.
Basically you use a Release Plan to do an initial sanity check of the project's feasibility and worthiness. Release Plans are useful road maps, but don't think of them as guides to the interstate road system. Instead, think of them as the maps used by early explorers ”half rumor and guess and half hope and expectation.
It's always a good idea to have a map of where a project is headed.